Am A Consumer

Ola Consumer CAse

Chennai

24 October, Wednesday 2018

From

Nandakumar N. Menon,

47 Anusha Srihari Apartments,

Aspiran Garden First Street,

Kilpauk,

Chennai -600 010

Mobile: +919895981809

Bhavish Agarwal

Chief Executive Officer,

ANI Technologies Private Limited

Regent Insignia,

#414, 3rd Floor, 4th Block,

17th Main, 100 Feet Road

Koramangala, Bengaluru, 560034

Phone number 080-67350900

Fax number 080-67350904

Dear Mr. Bhavish Agarwal,

Sub: cheating by your company to the extent of approx. Rs.60

Ref: Multiple tweets sent to your @Olacabs, @Ola_supports and to you @bhash

I am sad to inform you the trail of incidents which you could have dug into in the last two days if you were interested in the healthy existence of your company. The trail of incidents as follows:

On October 20, 2018 at 6:30 pm I took an Ola cab to commute from 320 Velachery Main road -to- Pallavaram-Aarna Mahal
The estimated charge shown on the application was Rs.180/= which is much higher than the regular charge of Rs.104/- as shown in one of my return trip between the same destinations id CRN 2387841532.
I understand that onwards and return trip charges could vary due to one-ways and Surge pricing. Hence I could understand the charge of Rs.180/- instead of Rs.104/-
The driver who is rated 5.0 came to my place and picked me up at correct time
We crossed the Velacheri Fly over and were approaching the next fly over under which we need to turn right.
When the driver did not keep left and when I realised that he he is going to go over the bridge I told him “I think we are going the wrong way. We need to go down the fly over”
The driver responded saying “no sir, my navigator still shows straight”
I immediately started my google navigator and showed him that we should have gone down the fly over.
Driver understood the fact and after coming down the fly over took a left turn as “my google navigator suggested” since his navigator was “hung”
We went 270 degree left turns to reach the original route and went rightwards to take the left turn down the fly over referred above, which we would have taken a right 90 degree turn from the original path.
We reached the destination and the driver demanded Rs.240 as displayed on his device.
I told the driver that this high price of 240 over and above surge of 180 in place of 104 is due to the fact that he lost his way and went round about.
The driver to my dismay told me “Oh that is just 1 or two kilometers only no?”
I asked him if he is ready to accept the estimation that I got of Rs.180/= or need Rs.240/= itself instead of taking round about route.
The driver said he needs Rs.240/=
I gave him the amount and told him that I would prefer a complaint on him
In Ola iPhone applications I opened the “your rides” and clicked on “support”
I rated the driver as 1, so that you would call me and ask me what happened which never happened.
After pressing on “support” as in 17 herein-above I clicked on “Driver Related”
Then I pressed on “My driver took a long or incorrect route”
Then under the three options I opted “Driver took a longer route” and submitted.
Then I got a message saying “Fare cannot be adjusted.”
The message told me that the fare could change if destination is changed. It also told me that “factors such as heavy traffic , road construction or diversion are beyond our control and can result in higher fare than shown on the app.”
It concluded by saying “We are unable to adjust fares higher than indicated on the app due to any of the above reasons. Thanks for reaching out to us
In the subsequent question where it asked “How would you rate the support you received - Good / Bad,” I clicked on Bad
Below that there was an option “Call us”. I clicked on that and I would be attaching a record of what happened when I clicked. The name of the file would be “A dead ‘Call Us’ link of Ola cabs”
Then I tweeted to @Olacabs and @Ola_supports raising the issue.

Ola Request for details by DM

28. When I got a response as above I sent a Direct Message to them.
29. Then I got a reply as follows:

Ola Explanation

30. Since this was an audacious explanation where I know that I had not changed my destination, I sent them a communication as follows:

31. My denial due to no evidence

32. The above message asking for documentary evidence for my having changed destination as asserted by your staff was sent to them on 22 October. 8:34 am

33. Till date, 24 October, your staff and departments are silent on this.

34. So today I sent a tweet to the CEO

35. First tweet to the CEO

36. This was sent at 9:53 am. Considering the seriousness of the issue and the time already wasted by me, I expected the CEO to get at the information in 15 minutes. I was totally mistaken.

37. So as it stands, I will approach, Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums, Court of laws, Associations of cab operators, Unions of cab employees and any other organisation as I feel fit to claim the following:

Claims:

Refund amount which was collected illegitimately = Rs.60/= (240-180)
Courier charges of this letter to you = Rs. (actuals will be informed to you corroborated with bill)
Fax charges if any which will be incurred for sending this document to your fax number 080-67350904. (Please note that even if this number is invalid and not accessible, you need to pay me the amount charged by the fax senders, corroborated by their bills, since this number is the number available at your web site. If you have changed it and forgot to change it at web site, then it is a case of cheating against you for providing wrong fax number)
Fax/ Courier charges to send this to the Nine directors of ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. as corroborated by actual invoice.
Reimburse an amount of Rs.50,000/= which my medical adviser has assessed for restoration of my blood sugar back to 120/ unit which has surged to 300/ unit after my mental tension on this matter. (I will corroborate these with my FBS before and after this incidence)
Reimburse an amount of Rs.30,00,000/- which I lost in a land transaction which I could not close to the preoccupation with this issue.

The total that you need to reimburse as it stand is. Rs.30,50,060 + courier charges + fax charges + other incidental charges corroborated by evidence from my side.

This is my last communication to your director board.

CC.

Directors of ANI Technologies.
Directors of Parent company of Ola

The Case Studies

THE CHEATER CLUB MAHINDRA HOLIDAYS

This case is very simple.

I was a Re-One bedroom member of theirs. Am a member since the company started in 2000 AD (:-))

To cut the trail short am attaching my last mail to the India Head customer care of this company with attachments.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19rYt5aYih0vopZjuh-NtyZ72-p9g7qyb

You can see the different communications to this company there. Am yet to organise them.

Air India and am a Domestic Passenger!

On 20th June I had to come back from Mumbai to Chennai. I had a train berth reserved. Then I came to know that tickets by the Indian leg of Indian Airlines' international sector, comes at good discount. So I booked a flight ticket and cancelled my train ticket.

I reached the air-port in time, got the boarding pass and waited at the designated gate. When it was too late I started getting concerned and approached the transit counter and asked, why is this flight not announced. The man seemed surprised and asked me "where did you get this pass from"? I thought that was the most ridiculous question to ask a passenger and replied "Wherever am supposed to get it from". He had that blank still on the face and quickly went back and started whispering to his colleague. I asked him if the flight is cancelled, because I was almost sure. He said yes. Very calmly I asked him what to do next. "Sir you please go back to the check-in counter and give this boarding pass, they will give you new pass." he said.

Me: "new pass for what?"
Him: "for morning flight tomorrow"
Me: "Oh! so you will give an accommodation for the night?"
Him: "please speak to the check in desk, sir"
Me: "How do I go back? the security won't allow?"
Him: "show them this pass, sir, they will let you"
Me: "Thank you. Good night"
Him: "Thank you sir, Good night"

I went back to the check in counter. There was a huge crowd apparently of the passengers who were for the same flight. Through a gap I extended by boarding pass to the lady. She pushed the others and asked me
"Where were you sir, we were searching for you"
Me: "I was where I was supposed to be. Near the Gate"
She: "We were wondering where were you!"
Me: "you have an announcing system which could have been used"
She: "Sorry sir. Sir this flight is cancelled, so we will issue a boarding pass for the morning 7.30 flight"
(It was almost 11:30 in the night!)
Me: "So you are providing an accommodation for the night, right?"
She: "No sir. Actually you can use the cafeteria for snacks and rest there"
Me: "That is not fair. You can see that I am old! (not really but my hair was white then itself!!)
She: (very politely) "sorry sir, we don't have a provision for that."
Me: "Ok, no problem, let me check the cafeteria"

I resigned but the others were still shouting abusive words at that poor girl.

I went to the cafeteria and found lot of straight backed chairs where I can't even lean back, and anyway all of them and the floor was flooded with people!

I came back to the check-in desk again, where the others were still shouting at her, and asked him.
Me: "Mam, the cafeteria is fully occupied. Please give me an accommodation"
She: (very very politely) "SOrreeee sir, we don't have provision for that. You can have free snacks at the cafeteria"'

Sure am a good eater which you would have found from my "http://eating-ways.blogspot.in/", but it was surprising that she found it out!

At this point the consumer in me got up from the sleep. The consumer in me said "this poor girl is an employee of Indian Airlines. What can she do beyond her assigned authority! No point in arguing with her."

So I went out of air port, took an auto rickshaw (not a taxi), went to Andheri (not at Santacruz itself) , found a fairly descent lodge (not the Leela Kempinsky near the air port), stayed there, had a bed tea in the morning, checked out with all the bills, came to air port by auto rickshaw (not taxi), boarded the flight and safely landed at Chennai!

On 23rd, I wrote the following letter to the known address of Indian Airlines with POD.

Note some the points here. The letter with numbered lines improves the clarity of my communication. Am not even asking them whether they have a provision to compensate me. I have already assumed that they are going to compensate me. The letter is very polite and no threats.

I got a reply. Unfortunately the ink faded in 15 years! I have only one blank glazing white paper!! Don't know if some companies have techniques of fading ink, like I suspect Dell to have some firmware which damages the computer in 13th month after 12 months warranty!! That is what happened to my 3 Dell lap tops in the 13th month.

From my reply to their first letter, you can guess what they had written. Here is my reply

I don't exactly remember. But I think I gave this as hand delivery, because, there is that stamp and signature of Air India on the letter itself!. That is the way. Unrefutable evidence.

Note the following in this letter.

Point 1 tells them the that I was given a boarding pass and just before 15 minutes only I came to know the flight cancellation. How do I prove it. By giving copy of the following!! (surprised that I keep documents for centuries?)

In fact I keep the envelope also when there is no POD by my supplier, because with the envelope I can prove when the letter was delivered and how much time it took from despatching to delivery by the stamps of the respective post offices.

You don't believe that I lived in a small hotel. Here are the tea bills.

Look at the stress of auto rickshaw and hotel! Don't give even the slightest space to the supplier to counter you. In point number 7 am coming to the crux of the issue. In the missing letter here, he had said that "internal policy we are not providing accommodation for domestic passengers!!!" Also look at my counter to the "next available flight"

And in the concluding para, you can see the change in the tone. The first threat of legal fight.

Then came his next letter.

Poor man. He is the CRM for T.Nadu. What else can he do? So I need to take it to more responsible persons in the line.

Here goes my next letter.

Note point number 5,6,8 and the concluding sentence. Those are logical Bombs!

Now the tone of the letter changes and note that it is to the Managing Director. I got the following reply from the Commercial Manager - Sales, Mr. Girish Chandra. D. Vyas referring to my letter to their MD. Note point 5 where the "However.." is coming now.

Following is my reply to him. Note my positive statements to him. But also note that I am not leaving a space to them for telling me "we did not get the enclosures". I had a witness to enclosures. My good friend Captain Sujeet Oommen

I got the reply from the CM - Industry Affairs and Sales Mr. Nadirshaw. See point number 3 there? That is why I had my witness to enclosure even before.

So I sent this letter to Mr. Nadirshaw. May be Mr. Rajagopal was holding to his stand. Of course ego also come into play in such issues. So don't give breathing space in your communications and evidences.

Finally I got my cheque.

Then the King and Queen lived peacefully and happily!

Mobile fight of the 1997-Part-III

I had given some post dated cheques as instalments. They never presented any of them in the respective months for at least 2 months. Then I started getting worried. If they present all the cheques in one go I need to have balance in the account. If I were an organisation it would have been ok, because my accounts department would have updated the balance available amount in my account reducing it by the amount in cheques issued. So effectively I would not even know that so much amount is there in my account.

Mobile fight of 1997 - Part II

As I mentioned in the first part of "Mobile fight of the 1997" there were other problems too with Skycel. As soon as I had closed that complaint with the following fax,

Mobile fight of the 1997-Part-I

I always had the habit of possessing the latest technology of the day. I started using computers in 1984 by running a computer training institute. In 1994 I started using Standard Chartered Credit cards. And... in 1997 I started using Mobile phone!!